St. George

After an amazingly yummy Thanksgiving lunch with the Fowlers, our family took off for St. George. The drive down seemed long, but the kids were entertained with their TVs. We arrived at the condo about 8pm and my parents soon followed.
The next morning was lazy. I wanted to hit the outlet stores, but didn't care too much about getting there early with all the crazy Black Friday shoppers. We ate breakfast, watched TV and got ready to go. We hit Gymboree and the Levi store. We scored big! Kate got the better part of a fall wardrobe for next year at 85% off and Gavin and Greg picked up some Levis for super cheap. I'm quite happy we made the effort to go, especially since Kate had to wear her too big coat since Mom didn't pack one for her.
We hit Wendy's for lunch and then headed to a movie. Megamind wasn't the funniest movie I've seen, but it did have it's moments. The boys enjoyed it and Kate spent the whole movie on Grandpa's lap.
After dinner we bundled up and drove to the St. George Temple. It was cold! Okay, not as cold as it was at home, but still very cold for St. George.


The lights were beautiful. We walked around for a bit before we were all cold and ready to go. Gavin got some great shots of the Temple.


My favorite part of the trip took place the next morning. We took advantage of the sunny weather and explored Snow Canyon. Our family has been there before and really enjoy this place. We hiked to Jenny's Canyon,





scrambled on the rocks at Upper Galoot



and tried to find the pioneer names on the Pioneer Hike but we were unsuccessful.







The kids all had a great time. Gavin was climbing everywhere - I couldn't keep track of him. Enoch was fascinated by all the lava rocks (remember he loves volcanoes). I was feeling really bad that both Gavin and Kate had gotten new clothes the previous day and Enoch didn't get anything. Enoch could care less about clothes but was beyond excited to be able to bring home a volcano rock (I love how he is cradling his rock!). It was a great morning!

We stopped off at the condo, threw a frozen lasagna in the oven for lunch and drove to a nearby park. This park is incredible. There is such unique playground equipment and the kids can't get enough of it. We're trying to talk Grandpa Dee into building us one of those swings for our backyard!



After lunch, we watched the BYU-Utah football game. It was a decent game until the last four seconds! What a disappointment! Oh well. Grandma and Grandpa left for home after the game Our family watched TV, relaxed and ate dinner.
The cleaning began early the next morning. For some reason, the dryer at the condo takes forever long to dry anything, but especially towels (I'm talking 2 hours for a small load of towels), so we have to start laundry early. We cleaned up, washed sheets and towels, ate lunch, packed the car and left about 12:30. We failed to watch the weather our entire vacation, so we were unprepared for the winter storm that hit. Only about 15 minutes out of St. George, traffic slowed down. We were booking it at 10 mph for quite a while. The weather was snowy, the roads wet and icy and the kids were restless, but we finally made it home after 7 1/2 hours on the road. Despite the ride home, it was a great trip!

We Are Thankful (in no particular order)

Greg
Long, hot showers
Wife
Family
Job
Kate's welcome home hugs
Lenovo technical support
Me and Tresa being the nursery leaders
Cookies and milk
Snow


Tresa
The sound of the garage door opening when Greg is coming home from work
Contacts (not needing them, but the fact that I have them since I need them)
Family traditions
Clean sheets
Minivan
Kate's hugs
Enoch's smile
Gavin's sense of humor
Greg's patience and understanding
Friends
Sewing Machine
Amazon.com
Incredible grandparents for my children
Testimony of the Gospel
Living near the mountains
Dinners when there is no whining
Porch rockers
Holy Ghost

Gavin
Friends
Family
Cheese
Space Center
Mr Bacon (stuffed animal)
Beds
TV
Star Trek
Water
Clothes
Holidays
Blankets
BYU Football
Gifts
Recreation Outlet
Ice Cream with fudge
Computer
Mint Brownies
Comics
Power Tools
Glasses
Amazing Scout Leaders

Enoch
Family
Pictures of me
Chicken Nuggets
Cookies
Brigham (stuffed animal)
Warm bed
Home
Love
Brother & Sister
Camping
Swimming
Gym class
Bike
Grass
Jimmy & Hazel
Huggly books
Rescue Heroes

Kate
Princesses
Books
A new dress
Kitty (stuffed animal)
Home
Cheerios
Hair Bows
Nursery
Gym class
Piano
Toys
Jesus
Tea parties with my brothers
Chocolate Milk

Family Read-a-thon

When we made our family's 2010 List of Things to do (see sidebar), I was quite impressed that Gavin came up with a family read-a-thon. I wish I had thought of it. I was not about to let the year end without doing it, so we decided on tonight.
I didn't make as big of deal out of it as I could have; not everything has to be a production, right? We changed into our jammies after dinner, picked out some favorite books and headed downstairs. We curled up under blankets and read. Greg got the majority of the reading to Enoch and Kate - they loved it.
Our family loves reading - every one of us. I'm so happy our kids love to read.

Hello from Greg,

I have wanted to see a space shuttle launch for quite some time. Because there are only a 2 or 3 launches left, I decide that this would be a good time to go. Gavin, my dad and I flew down to Florida on Tuesday, November 2nd, so that we could see the launch on Wednesday. When we got on the plane, I called Tresa to let her know that we were about to take off. She told us that the launch had been postponed until Thursday. That wasn't totally unexpected, so we decided to just have some fun on Wednesday and then see the launch on Thursday. So Wednesday we go the the visitors center at Kennedy and see all the sights there. Thay have a new exhibit called the shuttle launch experience. It duplicated the launch of a space shuttle. Iit is only a 10 minute ride, but it is very authentic. We also saw a movie about building the space station and took a bus tour. We went back to our hotel at Daytona Beach. It was pretty nice and right on the beach, but we didn't spend much time on the beach.


We got up the next day to watch the shuttle launch. When we turn on the news, we saw that it had been delayed again. So we went back to the visitor's center and had some more fun. Gavin and Grandpa rode on the centrifuge.



And we all flew the shuttle simulator.



The next day we heard that it had been delayed again. The space shuttle had this type of problem before and I knew that it would take several days to fix. The launch window was closing on Sunday. There was no chance that it would launch before then, so we got the next flight home. We couldn't get anything until the next morning. So we decided to go to Sea World. When I called Tresa to tell her the news, she suggested that we go to Epcot center instead. So we went to Epcot center and had a great time. We went on some great rides and had a lot of fun. Then we drove to the airport. We got to the airport about 1:00 am. We slept in the car for 3 hours and then went to check in. We got home about 11:00 am. We were pretty tired.
I would suggest this vacation to everyone.

Greg Fowler

Kate's New Room

I'll admit, I got a bit carried away putting together Kate's new room. The pink was just so cute and I found a bunch of coordinating things at Ikea. I know, I know, excuses. But I really like how it turned out. And, more importantly, Kate loves it. As Uncle Jarom knows, she wants to show everyone her new room! She always whispers to me that she has to clean it up first before people can see it!
We found all the furniture at Ikea, which is handy because everything matches very well. The quilt was so fun to put together (although it did take longer that I thought it should). I think I bought every pink fabric in northern Utah County and southern Salt Lake County.
What a fun room for a girly girl!

Enoch, the Missionary

A few days ago, Enoch informed me he didn't want to go on a mission. I asked him why. He said, "Because I don't want to live at the church." HA! We cleared up that misunderstanding.
Yesterday, he told me he had decided where he was going on his mission. Rather that clear up another misunderstanding about missions, I just let it slide and asked him where he was going. Quite seriously, he answered, "To the asteroid belt! Won't it be cool to sleep on an asteroid?!"

Scattered Thoughts

I seem to be posting a lot of scattered thoughts lately. Perhaps because my life is feeling very scattered right now. We don't have a lot of big events going on, but just day-to-day things that keep life interesting.

1. Gavin will be very busy the next little while. On Sunday he was called to be the secretary in the 1st Quorum of Deacons in our ward. On Tuesday, he was elected Patrol Leader in his Scout patrol. He is excited to have some leadership positions. (You know Gavin, he always wants to be in charge!)

2. I've been busy getting ready for the holidays. I'm determined to be done by Thanksgiving. It will be close! I've seen sewing like mad woman (I think my kids agree I'm a mad woman!), planning activities, making wish lists on Amazon and trying to stay calm through all of it.

3. Darth Kater is back! Kate has been struggling with croup the last few days. I feel like we just got over the throwing up and now she is sick again. She does okay during the day, but at night she is really struggling to breathe (she sounds like Darth Vadar). We have the humidifier going full blast, Greg and I take turns sleeping in her room, just in case, and I was so desperate last night I rubbed Vicks on the soles of her feet (old wives tale).

4. Enoch attended his first BYU football last week. It was a perfect day to go - warm weather and a great game (at least for BYU, finally!). He really enjoyed the binoculars, treats and doing the wave.

Scattered Thoughts

1. One of Kate's favorite sentences is, "Me big girl!" I hear that at least 20 times a day. If you spend any time around Kate, you will hear it too. Today she said to me, "Me big girl. You are way big girl." I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not?

2. We got our flu shots a while back. What a difference a year makes. Gavin hardly made any noise on the ride over and I knew he was not looking forward to being poked. As soon as we got into the room, Gavin hopped up on the table, pulled up his sleeve and shook out his arm to relax it. Wow! He did great. Typical Enoch, he giggled all the way through his flu shot. Kate made a pretty sad face, but didn't cry. She then announced, of course, she was a big girl and needed a sucker from the doctor.

3. Do you know how fun it is to vote with Enoch? Not very. After standing in line for 45 minutes with Enoch and Kate, my patience was wearing quite thin by the time I got my voter card. I inserted my card and started touching the screen to vote. Enoch was fascinated with the voting machines. He wanted in on the action and started to vote too. Geesh. It took me forever to vote because I had to keep erasing his votes. Finally I walked him to the middle of the semi-circle of voting machines and sat him on the floor with strict instructions to stay put. By then, Kate was crying, because...I don't know. She just bursts into tears at random moments. I finished my ballot and tried to get out of there as fast as I could. However, the kindly poll worker wouldn't let us leave without giving all three of us a "I Voted" sticker. How fitting Enoch got one too.